Cuba expects to close 5 industrial projects with foreign capital in 2016

Cuba’s Industry Ministry expects to close at least five projects with foreign capital in the containers and packaging and transportation sectors prior to the end of 2016, that portfolio’s industrial management director told EFE.

Two of the projects are glass and aluminum container plants that are to be built at a cost of more than $80 million and located in the Mariel port’s Special Development Zone, Adriana Barcelo said.

They are part of a broader portfolio of projects the Cuban government has unveiled in a bid to attract foreign investment.

A domestic packaging industry is a priority for the Cuban government due to the “savings it will provide … in terms of import substitution,” Barcelo said, adding that she expected that a full proposal would be ready before the end of June.

She also announced that agreements were being negotiated for the manufacture of “all kinds of covers” and the repair and assembly of trucks and rail freight equipment, the latter in collaboration with Russian companies.

Barcelo said her office also was working on a plan for the management and use of solid urban waste in four of the island’s large cities and that 40 potential partners were being considered due to that project’s great importance.

The Communist-ruled island currently is promoting a portfolio of business opportunities under a 2014 foreign investment law, encompassing 246 projects in 11 economic areas.

Cuba is aiming to attract at least $2 billion in foreign direct investment annually as part of a plan to “update” its socialist economic model. EFE